Published on Feb 03, 2025
Click here to see the full transcript of our exclusive interview with Margrethe Vestager.
Margrethe Vestager is rejecting calls for a broad overhaul of EU merger rules, arguing that European policymakers should instead focus on strengthening the single market to compete with the U.S. and China as a global economic power.
In an exclusive interview with The Capitol Forum, the former EU antitrust chief, who left her post in December, said that a more integrated European market would spur “dynamic” competition, allowing mergers to unfold in a thriving, competitive economy.
“The most important thing for Europe is not competition enforcement—it’s making the single market work. That is the real core of competitiveness,” said Vestager, who was at the helm of competition policy for a decade. “Competition law enforcement is part of making sure that the European economy is competitive,” she added. “But it’s not enough. If you want to have competitiveness without competition, I don’t think you can climb that mountain.”
During her tenure, the Danish liberal pursued aggressive enforcement of the bloc’s antitrust rules, including giving Google (GOOG) three record fines, totaling over 8 billion euros ($8.3 billion) and ordering Apple (AAPL) to pay around 14 billion euros ($14.52 billion) in back taxes in Ireland—a case that gave her the biggest victory in the court just weeks before her second term ended. Throughout her years in power she pursued an agenda to protect European consumers and she was replaced by Spain’s Teresa Ribera who has been charged with re-examining whether the current merger rules are fit for purpose.
Vestager’s remarks follow calls from executives at some of Europe’s largest corporations for regulators to ease merger rules, arguing that greater scale is essential to attracting investment and competing globally.
However, the former commissioner, who sparked controversy by blocking the high-profile Siemens and Alstom merger in 2019 on antitrust grounds, insists existing competition rules are sufficient to foster innovation and a dynamic market. “If you say we want bigger businesses but still want them to be challenged, then you’re all good to go with the existing merger rules,” she said. “I think it is interesting to see how big businesses have innovated in Europe. They only do that when challenged.”
Instead, Vestager pointed to market fragmentation as a greater obstacle to competitiveness than merger control. “If you’re in the environment, if you’re in energy—wherever you are—you always need to think about the single market,” she said. “If you want to fragment the single market, you go back to your workbench.”
For instance, she cited discrepancies in national product labeling between the 27 EU countries. “A member state says they have an obesity crisis and they invent a labeling scheme just for [them]… not everybody will have to put this label on their products, which means they have fragmented the single market,” she said.
“Everything in Europe should be geared toward boosting economic dynamism. Europe is aging, and its population is shrinking,” she said, warning that mergers that stifle competition risk undermining the bloc’s ambitions for geopolitical influence.
Vestager also dismissed claims that strict EU merger enforcement has weakened European companies to foreign competitors. Citing the prohibition of the Alstom and Siemens merger, she noted that China, often invoked as a competitive threat, has yet to make inroads in the European railroad market. “We revisited to see—did the Chinese come? But the Chinese are nowhere outside of China. And when you look at the global market, there are two champions. And those are Siemens and Alstom.”
“Fix the market. And the more dynamic a market you have, well, of course the more businesses can merge because they will still be challenged. And it’s from challenge that innovation comes. It’s not from being coddled and protected and taken care of.”
Trump, Big Tech and EU regulation. Vestager also addressed concerns about a potential shift in U.S.-EU relations with President Donald Trump back in office. Some business leaders fear that Trump’s rhetoric, particularly regarding EU regulation of Big Tech, could lead to retaliatory measures against European companies.
“Europe has its own challenges to address,” Vestager said, when asked whether the EU should take a stronger stance against Trump’s criticisms towards Brussels. “It’s crucial to focus on those, rather than be distracted by events in the U.S. A stronger Europe is a better partner to anyone we choose to engage with.” She added: “If you’re engaged in an argument and a tit-for-tat, that will divert your attention from the important things that you have going on.”
Trump has previously accused EU regulators of treating U.S. companies unfairly, pointing to repeated fines by Brussels against Meta (META) and Google. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has also publicly criticized Brussels, urging Trump to intervene, calling for an end to what he describes as excessive penalties—over $30 billion over the past two decades. Brussels is enforcing its landmark Digital Markets Act (DMA), a piece of legislation aimed at opening markets and restraining the growing power of incumbents like Meta and Google. Hefty fines are expected this year for potential breaches of the law.
Vestager dismissed claims that the enforcement under the DMA unfairly targets U.S. firms. “No fines have been issued from the DMA yet. So, it’s a bit premature,” she said. “And also, you can live up to the DMA and you will have no fines. It’s not a difficult act to live up to because it takes what is already in antitrust law and in unfair trading practices. Existing obligations make those clearer with shorter deadlines and shorter ways of working. There are no surprises, none whatsoever.”
She also dismissed growing worries that billionaire Elon Musk, who heavily funded the Trump campaign, is meddling in European affairs, potentially influencing the outcome of key polls. Last week, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called out Musk by name describing his involvement in the German elections as “disgusting”. In January, the CEO of Tesla appeared via video link at Germany’s far-right AfD party’s campaign launch, telling supporters that Germany should “move beyond” its “past guilt”.
Vestager said: ”Our democracies are strong enough for someone to come and say their opinion. But this is one of my surprises. Why is it that people think that when a man has money, it makes sense what he says?”
